1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to patient transport systems, and more particularly, to a patient transport system for transferring an immobile patient from a bed to a gurney or vice versa.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It appears to be widely accepted that a major, if not the major, work-related complaint among nurses and hospital nursing staff is back injuries caused by lifting patients and getting them in and out of a bed and to and from a gurney or a stretcher as it is commonly referred to. A survey of existing practices and techniques suggests that there is no widely adopted simple and safe method of transferring patients from a bed to a gurney, or vice versa, without lifting them. There are hoist-type lifts where the patient is suspended in a sling. The sling must be first manipulated under the patient and then the patient must be physically lifted, changing the shape of the body and applying pressures different from those existing on the patient when lying prone in bed. There are also roller boards which are inserted partially under the patient and then the patient is pulled onto the roller board. Again, the patient must be manipulated to allow the board to be inserted and then the body is pulled onto the board. In the end, the patient ends up on the board, not on the gurney or the bed. An additional disadvantage of the roller board is that either the patient must cooperate with the transferrer or more than one transferrer is required to effect the transfer. Patients have also been known to drop off the roller boards and to land on the floor between the bed and the gurney.
An earlier patent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/330,808, which is hereby incorporated by reference, solves this age-old problem of transferring patients from a bed or a gurney and vice versa. That patent application discloses an apparatus for transporting a patient and includes a base, a patient supporting member attached to the base, a conveyor attached to the base and a removable sheet. The sheet has a first end and a second end where the sheet first end is removably attached to the conveyor and the sheet second end is free. The sheet is adapted to be positioned on the patient supporting member, such as a mattress. In operation, an end of the sheet, which is attached to the conveyor, is rotated around a roller thereby moving the patient from the bed to a gurney or vice versa.
However, the conveyor disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/330,808 requires that the roller remain affixed to the bed or gurney, or the complete conveyor be removed from the bed or gurney. This results in a problem of storing the conveyor in a hospital room and transporting the conveyor when it is not attached to the bed or gurney.
Further, typically hospital beds vary in length and in many cases can be adjusted so that their lengths vary. In this case, a conveyor, such as that disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/330,808, may be inoperative if the length of the roller is different from that of the length of the bed. Further, if the length of the bed is varied during operation, then such a fixed length roller could affect the operation of the bed.
Therefore, it is an object of my invention to allow a patient, while lying in a prone position and completely immobile, to be moved, by one person of relatively low strength, safely from the bed to the gurney and vice versa, and to accommodate various bed lengths with one conveying apparatus.
It is also an object of my invention to provide a patient transport system for a bed or a gurney which can be easily engaged with the bed or gurney and removed.